//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 // Story: Magnificent Might of Midnight Sight Sorcerer Supreme // by Element of Malice //------------------------------// It took nearly ten minutes before every patient was brought outside to safety from the burning hospital. Once it was cleared, Rainbow was on her way back with a battalion of pegasi towing rain clouds with them. They were easy to gather considering that Rainbow’s call for help had the words ‘Hospital’ and ‘fire’ used in the same sentence. However, upon arrival one of the maintenance workers at the hospital, a turquoise stallion with a coral mane, began yelling for them to stop. “What are you talking about?!” Rainbow yelled back, “We’re trying to help put out the fire!” “It’s no good, water will only make it worse!” he yelled back. “…What!?!” Rainbow couldn’t believe what she just heard him say, “In what universe does water not put out a fire,” Twilight ran over to the stallion, “Is it an electrical fire?” she asked him. “Yeah, it is. Four machines up in flames, just like that.” He said confirming what Twilight suspected. “One minute they’re purring like a kitten, the next they’re screaming like a blazing banshee.” “Rainbow!” Twilight said as she flew up to her friend, “I appreciate your efforts, but water is the last thing you want to put on this kind of fire right now.” “But—” Twilight silenced her before she could say anything else. “If it does spread we will need you all on standby but being a pegasus you should know that water and electricity don’t mix well.” The alicorn reassured her, “Just stay put for now, in case we can’t get things under control.” Rainbow Dash turned to the gathered pegasi, “You heard the Princess! Everypony be ready if and when they call for backup.” She noticed Rarity within the gathering crowd then flew down to meet with her. Twilight joined up with Luna and Red Heart, who were questioning the pony from earlier, “Twilight, Clean Sweep was just informing me on what the machines that caught fire did.” Luna said. “This is a relatively new device, still under beta testing. What it’s supposed to do is lower the levels of—” his words got muffled out by the sound of sirens coming from the Fire Department. An old graying stallion with a horseshoe mustache and firepony outfit hopped out and began to approach the Alicorns, “Smoky Trails,” he said, greeting them in a hoarse voice, clearly having inhaled his fair share of smoke from previous fires. “You got any intel on what we’re dealing with here?” “Electrical Fire,” Clean Sweep and Twilight said simultaneously. Clean Sweep continued, “in the boiler room, you’ll need to use some kind of foam to extinguish it.” “All I need to know is what kind of fire it is and where it’s at, my team will take care of the rest.” Smoky Trails said before he began barking orders at the other firefighters. “That’s great,” Sweep said. “But it’s not going to be possible for any of you to use—” “Twilight!!” Rainbow Dash rapidly flew over to the purple alicorn pulling her attention away from the other conversation, “Something’s wrong with Good Light!” “Wrong how?” Red heart asked “I-I-I don’t know!” Rainbow said in a state of panic, “At first I thought he was waking up or something but then he barfed all over Rarity, her mouth was open, it got in her eyes, and now she’s having a mental breakdown on how it will weeks to get the smell out of her mane and—” “Rainbow!” Twilight said over her friend’s tangent, “Good Light?” “Right, a-after he threw-up that’s when he started… it looks like he… he’s… Rah!! You better just come see for yourself, hurry!” Twilight and Red Heart followed Rainbow Dash. When they arrived, they saw Fluttershy staring at a gathering crowd to back off, Applejack was helping her with crowd control, Rarity was crying, and squirming in small jerky movements and on the ground was Good Light. “Looks like he’s having a seizure,” Red Heart said, quickly assessing the symptoms. She cradled his head before she continued, “First thing we need to do is keep his head protected, but other than that, there’s not really much else—” “Red Heart,” Twilight interrupted, “Look at the foam around his mouth, what does it look like to you?” At first, Red Heart had to hold back her frustration on being told how to do her job, but after a closer look, she saw what Twilight was trying to tell her. The froth that was around Good Lights’ mouth had a glittery appearance to it much like how a glowing unicorn horn would look when casting a spell. “This is worse than I thought, we’re not just dealing with a normal seizure. We have to get him to an operating room stat!” “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Asked Fluttershy. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong!!!” Rarity shrieked makeup dripping down her face, “He threw up!... ON ME!! Do you have any idea how disgust—” Twilight gave Rarity a hard slap across the face and silence pursued. “If we can’t reverse his condition and stop it from getting any worse than it already is right now!” Twilight said clearly infuriated by Rarity’s words, “HE IS GOING TO DIE!!” “Waahhgaga!” Star Glow jolted to an upright position panting heavily and dripping with sweat, her sheets and white mane clinging to her body. The cobalt blue mare plopped her head back onto the pillow. She rubbed her face and stared at the ceiling, “It was just a dream…” She rolled over to her side and curled up slightly, “It was just a dream… It was just a dream… It was… so real… that was too real.” Sighing, she could feel herself wanting to cry. It didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t have been… him? “Why now?” Star softly whined to herself as she played with a little tuft of mane in front of her eyes. “I don’t get it.” Eventually, she got out of bed and spent the next few minutes straightening her sheets. When the bed was made to her liking, Star started to leave but looked back before exiting. She grabbed the perfectly smooth sheets and blankets in her magic yanked them off and brought them downstairs to wash the sweat out. After taking care of the bedding and rinsing herself clean, she entered the kitchen and saw her old friend Gold Dust sitting at the table eating his favorite meal, breakfast. Star gathered the dirty dishes and started washing, drying then putting them away. When she was done, the mare went to the broom closet, grabbed a broom, and began sweeping the floor in silence. “I know that look,” Gold said finally. “Hm?” At first, Star didn’t realize he was speaking to her, but when she did she looked at the dark green stallion. “You’re thinking of him again, aren’t you? I understand it was difficult losing him, but how many times do we have to go through this? We all took it hard but face it Star he’s—” “I had a dream,” Star said quickly as if it were one word, knowing how the conversation would take a bad turn. It felt like an eternity before Gold started to chuckle softly, slowly escalating into laughter. The stallion stopped laughing and threw the table to the wall. “Where was that dream when we needed it most Star!? Where was it five years ago before we gave up looking for him!? Six years ago when he went missing!?!” Star didn’t say anything because she knew that whatever was said would be twisted into something she never intended for it to mean. “Say something Star… ANSWER ME!!” Gold Dust stomped his hoof and hung his head, an egg-sized lump catching in his throat. “I spent half of my family’s inheritance trying to find him for you… for us… do you know how hard it was for me to get it all back!” he regretted saying those words the moment they tumbled out of his mouth, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” He turned away and put the table back in its place. Gold Dust sat back down on the chair he was on before, then nothing was said for some time. “He was… the only reason they ever came.” Star cleaned the mess off from the floor and wall, still not saying a word since the conversation started. “Star, talk to me, he was my friend too. I just don’t understand why this is happening now.” Star stopped what she was doing and looked directly at Gold Dust, “I am asking myself the exact same things as you are, okay? So you can keep asking me every single question you have in as many different ways you can think of, but I don’t have an answer to a single one… I don’t know!” She screamed at Gold, letting out her frustration on the matter. “Maybe it’s because I finally mastered my special talent, maybe it’s… a million different reasons why! But the fact is that it won’t do you any good to ask me… I MISS HIM!” Star’s voice began to crack as tears started to form. “He’s all I can think of every day Gold. All these years, something kept telling me he’s alive even though I keep telling myself that he’s not. Now I get this and it’s like everything I knew before is backwards… Some psychic I am,” Star Glow broke down crying on the spot. “I couldn’t even save Shadow Gazer!” Slowly, Gold Dust approached Star Glow, picked her up, and wrapped his hooves around her. The next ten minutes were spent with him comforting her as she let her feelings run their course.